In November 2022, I was sitting in a faculty meeting. The shininess of a new school year had long since dulled, and the staff, as a whole, was starting to feel it. Everyone was tired, overwhelmed, and feeling like maybe they didn’t even know how to teach anymore.

On stage walked my principal. That day, he looked beaten down. When he took the mic, he did something few administrators are brave enough to do–he was honest.

He acknowledged that the day was hard, this year so far had been hard, that the past few years have been hard. Today’s students need so many more, and different, things than in the past. And then he admitted, “The children are not okay.”